


Caged Canary

by SeldomSong



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Birds, M/M, Stockholm Syndrome, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 16:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6813883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeldomSong/pseuds/SeldomSong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fear.<br/>Fear plagued moments of sheer joy.<br/>Fear in every inhalation. Fear in every twitch of Rhys' fingers, or every movement of his eyes underneath pale eyelids. <br/>Fear lay in the thought of him waking up. But there was something greater.<br/>Terror. <br/>Terror in the moments when he realized the boy was too thin. When he realized his muscles were wearing away, when he saw the bone peaking though. <br/>This all made Jack a torn man. Wake him up, and risk losing him consciously, let him sleep, and risk losing him unconsciously. There was no safe way of letting the CEO have his toy.</p><p>Sequal to: Stay In Your Coma</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caged Canary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Karaeir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karaeir/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Stay In Your Coma](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6583267) by [Karaeir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karaeir/pseuds/Karaeir). 



> Okay, so the Archive posted this wayyyyyy before I was ready, so I had to rush to finish this. It's actually ready now! Hehehe!

The door was broken down, and there was no noise. Chaos raged outside, but it was all completely silent. There, inside the study of a small wooden house sat a young lady- Maybe sixteen, seventeen even- with her back to Jack. 

Did she even care anymore?

Likely not.

The megalomaniac stalked behind her, before pressing his gun to the back of her head. This was, after all, the one responsible for all of this.

Had the situation been calmer, Jack would've appreciated how nice the small home was. The little study in which she sat in was beautiful, airy and full of moonlight, filled with the sounds of a single lonely canary singing through the chaos.

"You keep a caged bird, I hear," The young woman hummed, "What's the man's name? Rhys? Yeah, that was it. Rhys."

Jack pulled back the hammer of his gun, "What do you know?" 

He could hear the smile in her voice, just as pleasant as it was melodic, "Oh, an old friend of his told me of his condition. Poor thing, I'd hope he's feeling better..." She stood up, walking quietly towards the canary cage, before glancing up at Jack, "But you don't want him to, do you?"

Her voice was smooth silk against his ears, it made sense. She and her aunt- somehow the pair had ended up on Pandora- raised songbirds. Only the best ones, too. They weren't cheap.

"Did you know that canaries don't sing unless they're kept alone? Their singing, though beautiful, is a desperate attempt to attract someone... A cry of loneliness. Birds can die of being lonely, you know." She turned to him, dark hair falling in her face, hazel eyes alight with something akin to warmth.

Jack took few steps towards her, before his entire form was bearing down on her own, she smiled up at him, "Would you like a songbird? Maybe then you could let Rhys go... Or prove to him that he'd rather stay."

The CEO's eyes widened at the daft girl, "Who are you?"

"As far as we're concerned, I'm nobody. I'm just a little girl who raises birds, and does it quite well. But, if you must know, my name is Ai." 

Her smile never faltered, even as Jack seemed more and more intent on killing her. "You wanna know something? Though Auntie was great at what she did, but she was convinced that her canary loved her," The girl walked towards the window, opening it, "Though a caged canary may sing, you'll never know if it loves you."

She whistled out the window, before a small, uninspiring brown, tan, black and white bird flew in, landing neatly on her finger. "But when a free chickadee returns to you, one can be certain it cares." The bird began to sing, simple little pleasant songs, "You keep a caged canary, and sure, he will sing, but if it's given the chance to fly," she strode over to the cage, opening the door and watching silently as the delicate yellow bird flew out the window singing with something that sounded like joy, "It  _will_ take it's chance to escape." 

Walking towards the window, bird now resting happily on her shoulder, they both whistled. Three smaller birds of the same type flew in, landing delicately along the girl's arm. Walking back to another cage- no, it more closely resembled a fish tank that could easily be her height. she let them in. It was it's own little self-contained ecosystem, "My father worked for Atlas, you know. He was a head biologist, working on bio-domes and terra-forming, and such of the like. He made this for me."

There were small tree's and a little lake, it was the perfect environment for the little birds. There was a full flock in there, maybe five pairs all nestled together comfortably. Though the entrance through the top was wide open for several minutes as she pet the few that came to her for attention, not a single one so much as _tried_ to leave.  _Maybe she's onto something..._

They sang loudly now that their flock was full, dynamics quite clear as they all settled into their relative spots, some squabbling for areas, and others immediately settling in for sleep. 

"But then again, what would you know about parenting? Hmmm? I mean, wasn't your daughter's last words to you something like... 'You're an asshole.'" She mimicked the sound of Angels voice with perfect accuracy, turning around to look at her, seeing that her smile was still pleasant and her eyes still warm.

That was the last thing she would ever say, "Shut up." Jack growled going to grab her, "What do you even know about her? You've never met her!" 

"Ohoho!" She giggled, dancing around with a now manic grin, "That's what you think, Mr. Jack! I may not have tried to find her, but she sure as hell tried to find me!" 

"Liar!" He roared, finally catching her by the throat, taking pleasure in her momentary struggle as he slammed her against the wall for leverage.

She stopped struggling, "Is that honestly what it took to get you to kill me already?" She choked out, "I dissed you on every front imaginable, and I had to say the one thing I didn't want to..." There was a long, dry cough from her.

"What-"

"You heard me, dammit... Just... Just..." The light, the warmth in her eyes began to fade.

_She was faking it..._

"Take my birds... Please... Someone needs to take good care of them... My- My desk..." She gestured weakly towards it, "Look-"

She died before finishing her last sentence, leaving Jack to drop her lifeless body to the ground. He looked at the birds, cuddling happily in pairs, before storming over to the desks, tearing open all the drawers before finding something. Four, small leather journals, all but one labeled with masking tape and a sharpie. 

_Canaries._

_Chickadee's._

_People._

He shoved them into his pocket, before barking orders into his comm. He needed a team to get these birds  _unharmed and well_ back up to Helios

"Now!" 

* * *

There were moments when Rhys was certain that he'd not be swimming in darkness again, before he was pulled away from feeling. 

Sometimes, he could barely twitch a finger, or maybe shift his arm slightly, but otherwise, he was in nothingness. 

Jack probably thought the sleeping man couldn't hear him, talking to him casually as he slept, honesty in every breath. But Rhys could hear. Every. Last. Word.

Maybe he had Stockholm Syndrome or something, but he grew to feel guilty and sad for the older man.  _So this is what he's been through..._

The door was opened, and more than just Jack's footsteps came in, "Leave it there, now, get out."

There was a sound Rhys hadn't heard before- and trust me, Rhys had developed an excellent sense of 'echo-location'. It was a soft chirruping sound... 

There were birds in this house. 

"Heya, Rhysie. Miss me?"

_Yeah, you're the only person I ever see. I was lonely._

"Yeah, I missed you too... Say, do you like birds?"

_I don't have much of an opinion on them, honestly._

"I hope so. I got a lot of 'em. Ten, and one has a nest, so.... I don't really know what to do with 'em." 

_Where'd you get ten birds, Jack? You were on Pandora._

"Yeah, and this girl... Um, she gave me some stuff on how to take care of these things."

_You killed her, didn't you?_

"Um... She didn't live."

"You did..." Came a weak voice, so soft and so quiet that if Jack wasn't straining in the near-silent penthouse, he wouldn't have heard.

"Rhysie?" Jack whispered, kneeling beside him, "Did you say something?"

There wasn't anything for a long moment, Jack loosing hope slowly, "Please..." 

Jack snapped to attention again, "What is it, Rhysie? What do you need?"

"Let... Me..."

"What is it, baby? Tell me what you want," The urgency in Jack's voice made Rhys want to cry.

"Go..."

The drips running through his body, keeping his eyes closed and muscles immobile stopped. Whether it was out of shock or if Jack actually wanted to was unclear, but the younger man struggled to open his eyes. Jack was hovering above him, looking down on the pale sleeping form of the younger man.

"Jack..." There was a dry laugh from Rhys, "How was Pandora?"

Rhys tried to sit up, but Jack panicked, doing the only thing that made sense to the insane older man.

The drips restarted, and within minutes, Rhys was once again unconscious. 

* * *

Jack flipped through the book on canaries, and the one on chickadees, wanting to know as much as he could.

But then, the unlabeled one... That... That fucked him up. It was a book of poetry. 

Well, it was going to be.

There was only one poem in it.

_Though your caged canary may sing for you,_

_The only proof of its love is if it returns to you._

Jack stopped the drips, it would take awhile before Rhys awoke. He opened the top of the tank, watching as one bird- a very little one- flew dead towards him. _  
_

The CEO's first instinct was to slap it away, but he remembered how the young girl had handled this, setting out a finger for it to land on.

The thing was delicate, with a little tag on its foot. Something small and unobtrusive, "Isis? Is that your name?" 

The bird sang in response, flying off of Jack's finger and back towards the tank. By the time he had gotten up to go check on Rhys, another two flew straight towards him, landing delicately on his shoulder. They didn't care as he walked towards Rhys, singing small little songs to each other. 

_They're kinda cute..._

Rhys was twitching, "C'mon Rhysie baby? You gonna wake up?"

There were gonna be birds all over his penthouse, but at this point, Jack didn't care. They'd be nice to wake up to.

The birds flew off his shoulder to look at Rhys, their name tags showing two matching stars. Fingers running through the pages of the book, he found out that they were mated pairs.

"Helen and Paris, huh?" He saw the little birds stand on either of Rhys' shoulders, singing softly to him.

"What....?"

"Heya Rhysie-boy. How'd ya sleep?" Jack tried to joke, but it came out fearful. He was. 

"Why are there... Birds on me...?"

Jack laughed for the first time in awhile, "I don't know, Rhysie. Why don't you ask them."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact about Ai:  
> She's actually a they, and they're my Borderlands OC. I have a whole list of possible backstories, and I may even write her into my current main fic, but for now she's my all purpose, 'drives the plot forward and dies' character.  
> End of part one of two! Yes, there are lots of bird metaphors! I have birds, and I like them a lot. Funny thing is, I also have a cat, a kitten, and one dog! Yeah, I know. Great environment for birds....  
> Anywhosies! Check out my tumblr, yeah?  
> http://seldomsong.tumblr.com/  
> K, love you! Baiiii~


End file.
